Course Description and Objectives

This course will provide a strong conceptual foundation for corporate finance. Finance theory will be used to solve practical problems and to learn how managers should respond to change. A broad spectrum of topics in corporate finance will be covered including net present value, capital budgeting, cost of capital, dividend policy, and capital structure.

The lectures will focus on the major points introduced in the textbook. I will assume that you have some basic knowledge of accounting, algebra, economics, and statistics, and that you have read the relevant material in the textbook prior to class. You are encouraged to ask questions and to be an active participant in class. After the lecture, you should study your notes and solve suggested end-of-chapter problems.

Instructor Biography:

Prof. Ravi Jain is a faculty member at the Indian School of Business. His research focuses primarily on empirical corporate finance issues, including corporate ownership structure, share repurchases and dividend policy, direct stock purchase plans, dividend reinvestment plans, reverse takeovers, and self-underwritten initial public offerings (IPOs). His recent work has examined the effect of liquidity on asset prices, especially as it relates to the discount on closed-end funds. His papers have been published in peer-reviewed international academic journals and he has presented his research at several international conferences and universities.

Prof. Jain’s teaching interests are in corporate finance. He has taught at the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University, the Indian School of Business, and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He has served as a consultant on international finance to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. He received a Ph.D. in Finance from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).